F2Pool Threatens To Withdraw Consensus Support Over Adam Back Allegations

For those people who were under the impression the Bitcoin block size debate was over, you are sadly mistaken. That being said, things are getting interesting, as F2Pool announced they will withdraw support from the February 21 roundtable consensus unless things are sorted out on the Adam Back front.

BTCUSD-UPDATE: BULLISH MOMENTUM, LONG FAVORED!Currently, all bitcoin holders are paying miners via subsidy/inflation for the security of the network, so that we get the most secure blockchain,... http://bitnewz.net/Articles

This isn’t of course the long-dead leader of al-Qaeda, but rather the 500-euro ($551) note -- as known by its Spanish nickname. Rarely seen by ordinary citizens, and suspected by officialdom of aiding criminality and terrorism, the single currency’s largest physical unit is slated for a potential phase-out by the European Central Bank.

Such an event isn’t momentous, but it coincides with efforts by European governments to curb cash in general, striking a nerve and stoking fears among the public that bureaucrats are conspiring to eradicate real money altogether. While the ECB and other central banks may be tempted as they drive interest rates lower, pushing too far risks backfiring if it drives the privacy-conscious away from policy makers’ control toward unregulated electronic currencies like Bitcoin.

“We sure need a medium of exchange and we sure need a store of value,” said William White, an adviser to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, noting that it’s “not impossible” decentralized currencies will eclipse official money. “If it turns out that the system we’ve got doesn’t provide that, then something else will.”

Given that cash in circulation in the euro area has risen steadily since its introduction in 2002 to reach 1.06 trillion euros as of last month, any suggestion that all that could someday be removed seems fanciful. The 500-euro note represents 29 percent of the value of all banknotes -- or 306 billion euros -- so a change would be a major intervention in money supply. It’s unclear how the value would be replaced.

That’s enough for Jens Weidmann, president of Germany’s Bundesbank and a member of the ECB’s Governing Council, to warn against damaging trust in the currency itself. Lingering unease blew up into a national issue after the German finance ministry this month proposed a 5,000-euro ceiling on cash payments to fight terrorism financing and tax evasion. Bild, a German tabloid newspaper, ran a front-page petition decrying all curbs on the freedom that cash provides.

“It would be fatal if the current discussion about the abolition of the 500-euro note or a limit on cash payments were to give rise to the impression with the public that cash is being taken away, step by step,” Weidmann said on Feb. 24.

Austrian Deputy Economy Minister Harald Mahrer even called this month for citizens to have a constitutional right to cash. Switzerland, with its own currency and an even-higher denomination 1,000-franc ($1,010) note, also has a proclivity for paper money: a 100,000-franc limit on anonymous cash transactions adopted in January was opposed by members of the fiscally-conservative Swiss People’s Party on the grounds that it enabled state snooping and infringed liberties.

Elsewhere in Europe, the public is less bothered. After all, what passed for fintech in the 13th century, when paper currency became known in Europe from China, might have a sell-by date. In Sweden, it may be near. The value of bank notes in circulation there has dropped by a quarter in just five years.

It’s not a trend everyone in the country welcomes. Jan Bertoft, secretary-general of the Swedish Consumer Association, says banks are reducing cash-handling too quickly, restricting access to people who need it. That includes older and younger people, those without access to smartphones or the Internet, newly arrived migrants and non-governmental organizations.

“Cash is a legal mode of payment and this is taking away the right to use this payment method,” he said. It’s “deeply unfortunate. Everyone should be given time to adjust.”

If Sweden is the future though, it also provides a clue as to what central bankers can do in that environment. At minus 0.5 percent, the Riksbank’s benchmark interest rate is lower than either the ECB’s deposit rate or the Bank of Japan’s new penalty for parked bank funds. The Riksbank opined in September that negative rates do indeed work better in a cashless environment, as did Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane the same month.

That gives fuel to skeptics in countries such as Germany who make the slippery-slope argument, suspecting that authorities are eroding freedoms for their own ends. It’s not a huge leap to imagine how citizens weary of years of ultra-low interest rates and suspicious of surveillance by governments and companies might seek to circumvent the established monetary system.BOE Account

All it would take is enough innovation and the right combination of computing power and software to make something resembling Bitcoin a mass-market form of money -- and central banks “totally redundant,” says Thomas Mayer, a former chief economist at Deutsche Bank AG and founder of the Flossbach von Storch research institute in Cologne.

Some economists “see the abolition of cash as an exit out of their textbook problems,” he said. “It’s my suspicion that they haven’t thought through the institutional implications of that. It opens the door to private-sector money, and that’s a completely new world.”

Faced with such a challenge, it’s little surprise that central banks are responding. The People’s Bank of China said in January that it’s studying how to issue its own digital currency. In Europe, BOE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe hinted this week at his own institution’s research.

An interesting shift seems to be happening in the world of Bitcoin mining, as one of the largest mining pools is going through a significant dip in hashrate right now. AntPool is one of the mining pools testing the Bitcoin Classic solution, although not in an official “live” capacity just yet. The recent drop in hashrate on the mining pool can be attributed to many possible factors, yet some people feel Antpool needs to switch to Bitcoin Classic before it is too late.

While it is not uncommon for mining pools to report variable hash rates on a 24- or 48-hour basis, a significant drop is a rather unusual occurrence. In the case of Antpool, their share of the total Bitcoin network hashrate has fallen from 22% four days ago to 17% right now, and they are slowly being overtaken by BTCC pool on the charts.

Whether or not this has anything to do with supporting Bitcoin Classic, or still running Bitcoin Core, remains anybody’s guess at this time. Earlier this month, Antpool announced they would start beta testing the Bitcoin Classic solution shortly, although very little information has been published ever since.

Some Bitcoin miners are worried Antpool will need to decide whether or not they will fully support Bitcoin Classic or Bitcoin Core as this in-between status is not helping matters much. Other mining pools are keeping a close eye on things, and BTCC pool is now on par with Antpool regarding mining power.

Even though Antpool is among the parties agreeing on the Bitcoin roundtable consensus, they were the ones holding out the longest. These decisions have to be weighed very carefully, naturally, but indecisiveness is nothing doing mining pools any favors. It comes down to either supporting Bitcoin Core or Bitcoin classic in this block size debate, as there is no middle road.

At the same time, the number of Bitcoin Classic blocks being mined on the network keeps increasing. Whereas there were only six blocks roughly 24 hours ago, that number has tripled to 18 at the time of publication. KnCMiner is still leading the charge in this regard, although Slush pool has started to add some blocks to the tally as well.F2Pool Hashrate Increases By Nearly 30%

Bitcoin_Support Shift Bitmain Antpool Bitcoin

BTCC Pool is not the only mining pool seeing an influx of new hashpower, which seems to originate from Antpool miners. F2Pool, which has been the largest public Bitcoin mining operation for quite some time now, has seen a nice growth in hashpower as well, representing 34% of the entire network’s computation power, up from 26%.

If this trend were to continue over the next few weeks, F2Pool would be getting close to the 51% threshold. A solution has to be found to keep distributing hashpower on an even basis before one mining pool becomes too powerful. However, F2Pool has given miners the chance to make their voice be heard in the Bitcoin Classic vs. Bitcoin Core debate, which could be a driving factor as well.

"The economy depends about as much on economists as the weather does on weather forecasters"Jean-Paul Kauffmann"The risk / reward ratio is nuts. Playing with altcoins is like picking up pennies on the highway"BlindMayorBitcorn

This isn’t of course the long-dead leader of al-Qaeda, but rather the 500-euro ($551) note -- as known by its Spanish nickname. Rarely seen by ordinary citizens, and suspected by officialdom of aiding criminality and terrorism, the single currency’s largest physical unit is slated for a potential phase-out by the European Central Bank.

Such an event isn’t momentous, but it coincides with efforts by European governments to curb cash in general, striking a nerve and stoking fears among the public that bureaucrats are conspiring to eradicate real money altogether. While the ECB and other central banks may be tempted as they drive interest rates lower, pushing too far risks backfiring if it drives the privacy-conscious away from policy makers’ control toward unregulated electronic currencies like Bitcoin.

21 Inc just announced that the 21 Bitcoin Computer is shipping to 32 countries across Europe.

After last year’s $116M round, 21 Inc was flying high. But with big money comes big expectations. They did not disappoint with the release of the 21 Bitcoin Computer late last year. In regards to the release Balaji Srinivasan, CEO of 21 Inc said, “With this pocket-sized device, if you are an entrepreneur or developer, you can now instantly buy or sell digital goods and services at the command line using Bitcoin.” He went on to speak regarding the ultimate goal of ubiquity with the device. “We want to use the success of the 21 Bitcoin Computer to help make Bitcoin the next fundamental system resource, available by default on every new computer.” Industry titans (like Ben Horowitz) fully put their weight behind the product and philosophy too. Horowitz was quoted as saying:

I’m very excited about it. The thing that’s completely missing that I think would make the Internet better would be machine-to-machine payments. It’s just amazingly hard to do right now.

The computers being shipped to Europe come with the same software toolchain being offer in the US and Canada. The team outlined a few uses that are covered by tutorials that ship with the machine. The team stated,

With the associated Bitcoin tutorials, you can learn how to:

Host a bitcoin-payable web app, such as a notary public service Sell data and insights using machine payable APIs and micropayments Buy computational resources on-demand with bitcoin Receive SMSes privately in exchange for bitcoin

The 21 Inc Team has made it clear from the first day that their goal is to provide machinery that accelerates the usage and dev frontier of the cryptocurrency worldwide. They emphasized this goal by stating, “We aim to help make digital currencies and the Bitcoin Computer available worldwide, and shipping across the Atlantic constitutes a milestone in that journey. For those in other geographies, please sign up here to be notified when shipping is available to your country.” The groups next focus is Asia.They also offered their Slack channel at slack.21.co for those that would like to track the progress.21 Inc has the team, the product, the support, and the funding. Keep these guys on your radar.https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/21-incs-bitcoin-computer-available-europe/

ach das geht?? cloud on blockchainReport: Backup Software Firm Acronis Will Use Blockchain Technologyinteressant, ist der BTC in Russland nicht verboten? JA, NEIN, was denn nun?Software developer Acronis, a company founded in Russia and now operating globally while headquartered in Singapore is looking to introduce blockchain technology into its products,

European Parliament Proposes a Task Force for Virtual Currencies, Citing Opportunity and Challenges

University Data Compromised When Will Proponents of Centralization Learn?The University of California Berkeley announced on February 26th that 80,000 students and faculty members have been victim to a cyber attack within the schools records system. The compromise revealed to the hackers large amounts of data filled with social security numbers, credit card credentials, and bank account information. Paul Rivers, UC Berkeley’s chief information

edit: und frisch aus der Druckerpresse Final Taxi Cab in Marmaris Now Accepts Bitcoinby JP Buntinx on February 27, 2016It is not the first time. Bitcoin and taxi services are coming together in recent months. Not too long ago, Budapest Taxi announced they are accepting Bitcoin payments from now on, taking the competition to cash and Uber. This appears to be a market prone to disruption on the financial level, as passengers don’t want to deal with cash or card payments.